The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 460

Number 460

Guns N' Roses

"Paradise City"

(1989)
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Genre:Hard Rock

art & print available @ BigJet

#&$##!&$!@*%^# GRRR

Frag me I'm back! 97 songs ago! Man, one song every 100 is not bloody good, even Tez gets more songs than me. Ah f$*k it. Actually i blame you lot for liking pop drivel and mushy ballads. You people need to listen to more HARD ROCK. Ya need to venture out from your George Micheal and Scissors Sisters and buy some DECENT music like Lordi, Mushroomhead, Daath, Lamb Of God, Demon Hunter etc- GET IT? You can thank me later. Now i bet you are all keenly waiting to download Metallica's new album illegally and if not only cos ya wanna PI$$ them OFF. GOOD! Next thing i want yas all to do is make a comment saying you want GAZZA back and feature more harder music and remember the name is GAZZA and don't you $!*&%^!% forget it. ~ GAZZA

art by meix

At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N' Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don't play rock & roll. They were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, "Sweet Child O' Mine," showed. While Slash and Izzy Stradlin ferociously spit out dueling guitar riffs worthy of Aerosmith or the Stones, Axl Rose screeched out his tales of sex, drugs, and apathy in the big city. Meanwhile, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steven Adler were a limber rhythm section who kept the music loose and powerful. Guns N' Roses' music was basic and gritty, with a solid hard, bluesy base; they were dark, sleazy, dirty, and honest -- everything that good hard rock and heavy metal should be. There was something refreshing about a band who could provoke everything from devotion to hatred, especially since both sides were equally right. There hadn't been a hard rock band this raw or talented in years, and they were given added weight by Rose's primal rage, the sound of confused, frustrated white trash vying for his piece of the pie. As the '80s became the '90s, there simply wasn't a more interesting band around, but owing to intra-band friction and the emergence of alternative rock, Rose's supporting cast gradually disintegrated, as he spent years in seclusion.
art by bdoebler

Guns N' Roses released their first EP in 1986, which led to a contract with Geffen; the following year, the band released their debut album, Appetite for Destruction. They started to build a following with their numerous live shows, but the album didn't start selling until almost a year later, when MTV started playing "Sweet Child O' Mine." Soon, both the album and single shot to number one, and Guns N' Roses became one of the biggest bands in the world. Their debut single, "Welcome to the Jungle," was re-released and shot into the Top Ten, and "Paradise City" followed in its footsteps. By the end of 1988, they released G N' R Lies, which paired four new, acoustic-based songs (including the Top Five hit "Patience") with their first EP. G N' R Lies' inflammatory closer, "One in a Million," sparked intense controversy, as Rose slipped into misogyny, bigotry, and pure violence; essentially, he somehow managed to distill every form of prejudice and hatred into one five-minute tune. ~ [Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, All Music Guide]

Paradise City

art by PamelaKaye

Slash states that the song was written in the back of a rental van as they were on their way back from playing a gig in San Francisco with the band Rock N Riders. He states that the band was in the back of the van, drinking and playing acoustic guitars when he came up with the intro. Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin started playing along. Slash started humming a melody when Axl Rose sang, "Take me down to the Paradise City." Slash chimed in with "Where the girls are fat and they've got big titties." but the rest of the band wanted to make the song more 'radio-friendly', so Axl sang the first line again, where Slash chimed in with "Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty." Axl finished with "Take . . . me . . . home!" The band then expanded upon the rest of the lyrics in rounds. Finally Slash wrapped up by coming up with the heavy riff that drives the song.
art by Playscharvel

"Paradise City" is thought by some to be about Los Angeles and its corruption at the time. Some believe the song to be written about Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin's hometown of Lafayette, Indiana and the nearby Purdue University campus. During a 1988 interview, Rose told Hit Parader Magazine that "the verses are more about being in the jungle; the chorus is like being back in the Midwest or somewhere". It was also ranked #21 on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs of All Time, #3 in Total Guitar Magazine's list of the 100 greatest solos of all time, and has won various similar awards over the years. It ranked #453 ** on Rolling Stones' "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Slash has stated that this is his favorite Guns N' Roses song. ~ [Source:wikipedia]
** Bet ya its the only fragging time Crowbarred and Rolling Stone almost placed a song together in their fraggin' respective charts ~ GAZZA (don't forget the name bro)
For more Guns n' Roses see Number 557 & #795
For Rolling Stones see Number 689 & #767
For crowbarred's fraggin George Michael see Number 821
For Metallica see Number 484
For more Metallica visit MM Vol 1 #033 & Vol 2 #136

What does me mates at old Rolling Stone think about G&R?
After independently releasing an EP, Guns n’ Roses signed with Geffen in 1986, and, with producer Mike Clink (Heart, Eddie Money), put out Appetite for Destruction. Opening for Aerosmith, the band built a live following; and in September 1988, with wide MTV exposure given “Sweet Child o’ Mine” (#1, 1988) and “Welcome to the Jungle” (#7, 1988), the album reached #1; it stayed there for five weeks and on the charts for nearly three years. ~ [Source:Rolling Stone - from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll - Simon & Schuster, 2001]
For Heart see Number 567 & #909

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '460th Song of all Time' was "One Fine Day" by The Chiffons. The Chiffons has not appeared in The Definitive 1000